Royal Caribbean International
Enchantment of the Seas Cruise Review
 

Cheryl

We had flown in the day before. We stayed at the La Quinta in Hollywood. The hotel is nice. But we were not crazy about the service. We arrived early so they had to find a room for us that was ready. The room was clean and the view out the window of the court yard was nice. My DH went to take a shower and notice that there were no large towels. I called the front desk. They answered the phone “I am here to serve you”. I told them we had no towels. She said if I needed them right away, that I would have to come up to the front desk since she was the only one in the hotel or I would have to wait for the shuttle driver to get back from the airport. Huh? I went up to the desk to get them. After we returned from sight seeing, I realized that she only gave us 2 big towels and we would need towels for the morning. I called again. She said they didn’t have any clean towels left and that I would have to call in the morning to get them. I told her that this is terrible, I never been to a hotel that had no clean towels! She was sorry and that she needed to learn how to use the washer and dryer so she can help out. What? We use hand size towels. The free breakfast buffet was terrible too. Get there early or there is nothing left and it is a big mess.

Embarkation: The shuttle from the car rental picked us up at 11am. Had to show ID when we entered the port. Our driver pulled up at the front door and we were waved further down. We got out, they took our bags and then they told us we had to walk back to the front door with our carry-on. From there everything went smoothly. They handed us a form to fill out for Coco Cay, sat down to fill that out and before we knew it we were moving and getting our sea pass cards. It pays to do the online stuff. Everything went so fast that I didn’t have a chance to look at my watch until we sat down for a drink at the pool bar and it was noon. That was after we walked around the ship, took pictures and called our parents to say we were on board!

The ship is beautiful. We left an hour and half late, because there was about 37 people that were late because their flight were delayed. So we missed out on seeing the ship move away from the pier. We were in the middle of dinner and it was dark out already. Really windy, we had 9 to 12 foot waves. The Captain was trying to make up time so he was going full speed. The ship was swaying at times, you stumbled as you walked. We didn’t get sick…it was fun trying to walk around inside. It was a little scary when walking on deck. We stayed close to the inside of the walkway and held hands as we walked.

Stateroom: Large ocean view deck 3. My DH and I own a small RV trailer. So we were not surprised in the size of the room. It had lot of storage, didn’t even use all the drawers. DH ordered room decorations for our anniversary, a photo album and beach towel. All were there when we arrived. The bathroom is bigger then ours in the RV. So we were in luxury. The room was nice. Linens were new and really pretty. The bathroom showed signs of wear and tear but nicely set up. It had bars of soap, shampoo dispenser in the shower and clothes line in the shower, nice for the bathing suits. Room steward Roy kept the room up nicely. Love those towel animals!

Food:
Windjammer: We went there for lunch on the day of embarkation and for breakfasts on port days. They make you use hand sanitizer before you walk in. Food was really good. Lots of different things to try plus a lot of American type food, burgers, carved ham, French fries, sandwiches etc, something for everyone. Service was good. If you looked like you needed help, the staff helped you. One morning I dropped a napkin with the silverware in it.  The staff was right there and said "No problem ma’am, I will get it". Only disappointment was the watered down orange juice. It wasn’t watered down in the dining room or room service.

My Fair Lady: We had main seating 6pm. Food was really good. Service was good too. Sometimes I felt bad for our server Brenda. She had to carry all those meals by herself. All the way from the kitchen, we sat at the front of the restaurant. Bar service was kind of slow at times. Not because he was slow, more so where we were located and it was really busy. They need more help. On the first night our tablemates were there before we sat down. A newlywed couple that coincidentally got married on Nov 4th. The same date as us. What are the odds? They were kind of freaked out when we sat down. They had no idea you sat with other people. They were nice, but we never saw them again for the rest of the cruise. The next day, the head waiter asked where our children were?! Yikes, I hope I don’t look that old? They were very young and on their honeymoon.

Chops: Well worth the money. Service was great. The steak was bigger then the plate! Disappointed that I could not finish it. Food was excellent. DH had the lobster Bisque in the dining room and at Chops. At Chops it was twice as big and it actually had large chunks of real lobster which the dining room just had the broth, no lobster.

Entertainment: Shows were excellent. The “Love and Marriage game” - Hilarious! The Quest game no one would tell us what it was about except that it was great adult fun. OH MY!! Hadn’t had that much fun in a long time. I think my sides are still hurting from laughing so hard. Would highly recommend all the shows and the games, the comedian was kind of funny. I really liked our cruise director Carly; she had a great sense of humor. Bands were excellent too.

The Solarium was really pretty. It was so nice to sit in the pool/hot tub and have a drink. Loved those drinks. (Where’s the waiter…I need one) You don’t have to have the souvenir classes you just tell them you want a regular one. But they have some really pretty glasses available.

Ports:
Key West: DH & I were there for our honeymoon 16 years ago. So we just did the normal stuff. Took a taxi to southernmost point and walked back. Had a “cheeseburger in paradise” at Margaritaville, (really good), and had a chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick at Blonde Giraffe, that was so good. We also shopped.

Cozumel: Did the Tulum Express tour. This was not an express tour. As soon as you got off the ship you jumped on a Water Taxi to the main land so that you can jump on a charter bus. Getting to the bus required you to walk about 8 blocks through a touristy section where the locals tried selling you their stuff. All you heard was "For you almost free" from the shop owners. That was interesting. It was a long drive to Tulum. There was a rest stop with a tourist (trap) shop. They told you to bargain with the shop people. That was very difficult. There were no prices on the items; you didn’t know where to start. They told you the price. I thought it was me until we got back on the bus and some were complaining about it too. We finally arrived and the weather was in the 90's with 100% humidity. It was long and it was so hot. The traveling time there I understood. But our tour guide within Tulum was so long winded he was repeating himself all the time. So we had little time to walk around we were running late so we didn’t have much time to shop when we finally arrived at shopping area of Cozumel. Then got a taxi and arrived at the ship half an hour before time was up.

Coco Cay: It was really nice, clean and pretty. We did the glass bottom boat. It was hard to see the reef. There were too many people on the boat so there was not much room in front of the glass so you had to take turns, but most people really didn’t move so others could see. But the staff tried to get everyone a turn. Nice boat ride. We feed the yellow tail fish. That was cool. They also had a dance contest to island music that was fun. The food on Coco Cay was good. But a bit of a free for all. People are crazy and I think they were running out of food. One area had no more ribs, but DH was able to find some at a different location. They were really good. Oh…keep an eye on your food. Don’t leave untended, because, the birds will attack it. One guy just went to get something, came back and in seconds his food was all over the table.

Debarkation:
Went smooth. We had time to take a tour before our flight. Our color was lavender, so we were first off the ship. When we got inside the port, I could not believe the sea of bags. Wow. So glad we had lavender, there were only about 10 bags to go through in our group. We took the Everglades tour. It was good. If you have the time to take a tour, it well worth it just not to go through all those bags. I think we would still be there looking.

We would highly recommend this cruise. We had an excellent time and can’t wait until we can afford to go again.